Uhler found not guilty of felony charges

Published: April 14, 2000 12:00AM

After deliberating for more than five hours, a jury in Wayne County Common Pleas Court found former Creston Village Superintendent Roger Uhler not guilty Thursday afternoon of two third-degree felony counts of falsifying records that were kept by a government agency.

Uhler was found guilty of a misdemeanor count of illegally dumping sludge in violation of Ohio Environmental Protection Agency permit.

The 62-year-old was accused of changing the results of tests on monthly reports to the Ohio EPA to reflect a more favorable reading, not conducting tests that were required by the village's permit to operate the wastewater and drinking water facilities, such as pH readings, and illegally spreading sludge on cemetery graves, along the sides of roads and in Creston parks.

In closing arguments, Uhler's attorney, Robert Gluck, said his client never had any intent to defraud or fraud the EPA, and that intent was needed for the state to obtain a conviction.

"The element was not so much the offense," Gluck said. "It was the purpose to defraud. Obviously the jury didn't see that intent."

Gluck portrayed his client as a man who thought he was simply doing what was correct. The attorney then accused the village of Creston of taking advantage of Uhler, who was more than willing to take on any job the village threw his way, and the EPA for not paying attention to the inaccurate reports that were submitted on a monthly basis.

"You never heard the state say Roger did anything with purpose to defraud," Gluck told the jury. "I find it very interesting that Roger tells you he put down pH results that were not accurate. He admitted it. Does that mean he did it to defraud the EPA? No. He thought that it was the right thing to do."

Uhler had listed the same pH reading for water entering the sewage treatment plant, and water leaving the plant, for upwards of a year, something that is impossible because water pH is affected by everything from the weather to the amount of waste in the water. Uhler admitted to using an average on days that he did not conduct testing, but when asked how many days he did that, could not answer.

Gluck also painted his client as an uneducated man who should not have been put in the position he was in. One of the main reasons Uhler testified he did not conduct all the testing was because he was busy doing other jobs for the village, such as digging graves or taking care of the streets.

"Because someone may be stubborn, bullheaded or ignorant, does not mean they tried to defraud someone," Gluck said. "As far as Roger knew, all the equipment worked. He was the right man for work ethic. He was the right man for the village to use and abuse to do all these jobs. It was not right for them to give him this job."

In the state's closing argument, Brad Tammaro presented Uhler as a tyrannical boss who was intent on making every one of his employees follow his way, or face firing.

"The village of Creston at all times did operate its own sewage treatment and water treatment plant," Tammaro said. "And the village of Creston had one person who served as the superintendent for those departments, the defendant. Part of his job was the responsibility of overseeing both the sewer and the drinking water operations for that village.

"It was the defendant's job, it was his responsibility. And those plants were going to be run the way he wanted them run, and he wasn't going to be told how to run them by someone else just because the person had a license or certification."

Tammaro said that Uhler was given the opportunity to receive training, but refused to do so.

"The village was willing to give him the training, any training he wanted," Tammaro said.

He also said that when Georgia Frankenburg was hired to run the wastewater treatment plant under Uhler's supervision, he maintained control despite the fact that she had the proper licenses and certifications to run the plant.

When Frankenburg was no longer supervised by Uhler, she conducted tests at the wastewater plant. At the same time, Uhler was supposed to be conducting tests at the drinking water plant, Tammaro said.

"The only pH meter in the village was broken, and there was only one laboratory," he said. "But look at two pieces of paper: Look at the monthly operating report for the water plant, and look at the monthly operating report for sewage. What you will find is that Frankenburg reports AD, which means the meter is broken. The defendant and David Robertson (Uhler's son-in-law and employee) report 7.5 every day for the drinking water."